Days 42, 43 & 44 – Mandello del Lario, the Home of Moto Guzzi

Our ride from the northern end of Lake Como to Mandello del Lario was a short but enjoyable journey along the shoreline of one of the world’s premier addresses.

The trip that we’re on was inspired by a project proposed by the Moto Guzzi Club of Victoria, Australia. The idea was to crate up as many Moto Guzzis as owner’s wanted to and ship them to Nijmegen in Holland where they’d be ridden by their owners to Mandello del Lario, the birthplace and manufacturing hub of the Moto Guzzi motorcycle, to celebrate the 95th birthday of the marque. In the end two container loads with some 48 bikes left Melbourne and are on their way to the party as I write this, along with thousands of other Guzzista from all over the world.

I was very taken by the idea but wanted to spend a lot more time in Europe than the proposed 4 & 6 week timeframe allowed for so we organised an individual freight. The thing is that we’re here now and the party’s not for 9 more days which is a shame. But the upside is that we’ve pretty much got the whole town to ourselves. And what a lovely town it is too.

 

 For The Guzzista Amongst Us

By some incredible quirk we had booked 3 nights accommodation at Antica Officina B&B. When we talk of the birth place of the Moto Guzzi motorcycle, this is it. This is where it was built, in the blacksmith’s shop of Giorgio Ripamonti. 

Now run by Giorgio’s great nephew, Trincavelli Giovanni, it is something of a museum/shrine to the prototype Guzzi of 1919 and well worth a visit to the still functional workshop at 8 Cavour, Mandello del Lario, and a mere 50 meters from the Piazza where Carlo Guzzi is immortalized in stone.

The Guzzi Museum / Factory

i won’t bore you with all the pics taken in the museum, if you’re that keen you’ll be visiting it yourself in the near future, but needless to say it’ll have massive drool factor for most of the MGCoV members who’ll visit it.

Just a couple then.

We’re now ready to leave Mandello, but we’re still waiting for our passports to arrive from San Marino 😦 Oh, yeah, they’re in the post alright.

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